The invention relates generally to a hinge assembly for a vehicle interior trim component.
Many vehicles employ sun visors to shield occupants from sunlight which may otherwise distract the occupants during operation of the vehicle. For example, certain vehicles include sun visors positioned adjacent to a top portion of the windshield to facilitate access by a driver and/or front passenger. Many sun visors include a vanity mirror attached to an inner face of the sun visor which is visible to occupants when the visor is in a deployed position. In certain configurations, a cover may be employed to conceal and protect the vanity mirror when not in use. For example, the vanity mirror cover may be attached to the sun visor by a hinge that enables the cover to selectively expose and conceal the mirror via rotation of the cover with respect to the visor.
As will be appreciated, typical rotating vanity cover assemblies include a hinge assembly configured to bias the cover toward the open position as the cover approaches the open position and/or to bias the cover toward the closed position as the cover approaches the closed position. In this manner, the hinge assembly may hold the cover in the open and/or closed positions despite movement of the vehicle. Unfortunately, typical hinge assemblies configured to bias the cover toward the open and/or closed positions are expensive to manufacture and assemble due to the number of parts typically employed for such configurations. In addition, such hinge assemblies may be unsuitable for use in thinner and/or lighter sun visors because they employ bulky components such as springs, pins, and other relatively large parts.